of waist, or mayhap a little bit farder, fo it's out of the question for me to wriggle't as little and limberly as fuch a fine genteel, grey-hound-ham'd fon of a gentleman as Sir Andrew. The grin too is, as I juft now faid, a hard thing to hit off, I can't, for foul of me, find out any thing to make a man laugh at getting a woman over a cartret, and as to laughing where one don't fee the joke, and where the thing is one almost nothing at all, I never could do it fince I was born. Befides, why? I am fo cufs'd covered about the gills, that if I could laugh as heartily as Sir Andrew, 'twould not do, for my cheeks are too folidum firmus, if a man chofe to be learned, that it's enough to crack one's cheek furniture. I begin to-day to learn to hold my tongue, or elfe talk about nothing, juft as caffion fees fit. Hett gets on at a pure fize. Sir Andrew is giving her a lectur about airs, and high notions, fan-flutteringhemming, and the like, now in the garden. Gab would do very well if his larning did not stand in his way. But we shall all be fit to be feen in a fhort time, before we go back; tho' as to coming near Captain Carlile, that's impoffible yet I am sure he never took any pains to be better-moft, for every thing he does looks tog eafy for that fame thing with Mifs Lucia. Efquire, farewell, Sermons on the most prevalent Vices. To which are added an Ordination Sermon, a Synod Sermon, and two Sermons on a future State. By the Rev. David Lamont, Minifter of Kirkpatrick Durham, near Dumfries. Crowder, 8vo. 5s. 3d, (Continued from page 100.). To be a good preacher is, perhaps, a more difficult, as well as a more useful attainment, than to be a good speaker, either in the fenate or at the bar. In the two latter cafes the capacity of the hearers is more upon a level with that of the orator, and he may therefore content himself with a greater uniformity of ftile and manner. But in a religious affembly, which is generally compofed of all ranks of people from the higheft to the loweft, the preacher has a more arduous and complicated task to perform: he muft occafionally addrefs himself to every class and denomination of his audience; he muft inform the ignorant, and aroufe the flothful; he muft fix the attention of the thoughtless, and nelt the hearts of the obdurate; he muft convince the incredulous, and confirm the wavering; and, through the whole, he muft endeavour, that, while he renders himself perfectly intelligible intelligible to the meaneft of his hearers, he does not incur the contempt and ridicule of the moft learned and the moft refined. Mr. Lamont has, in our opinion, fhewn himself to be no inconfiderable proficient in these various branches of facred oratory; nor is he lefs remarkable for inftructing others to preach well, than for preaching well himself and to give fuch inftructions he is certainly entitled; for (as Pope fays, with the variation only of one word) "Thofe may teach others, who themselves excel." That he is equally entitled and qualified to give fuch inftructions is evident from his ordination fermon, which contains the duty and character of a good preacher, an extract from which we shall now take the liberty of laying before our readers. "To make men happy, is the defign of goodness; to make men good, is the defign of religion; to make men religious, is the defign of preaching; and to make preaching fuccefsful, is the defign of a church. Utility, then, is a minifter's object, and refpect fhould be a minifter's aim. In him, refpect and utility are infeparable; in him, utility and contempt are incompatible. In this character, to be ufeful and not refpected, is a fuppofition abfurd; in this character, to be useful and defpifed, is a fuppofition impoffible. Where there is no refpect to this character, there is ho reverence; where there is no reverence, there is no love; and where there is no love, there is no obedience. A better advice, therefore, an apoftle could not give, a better advice an apostle could not receive, than this in the text Let no man despise thee.' "A defire of refpect is native to the foul; refpect is one of the chief rewards of virtue. Life without refpect, is not life at all, but only its naked skeleton, or rather, if you will, its walking fha dow. It is refpect, and refpect alone, which gives life to existence and energy to life. "In the expreffion, Let no man defpife thee,' there is an uncommon peculiarity. It feems to fuppofe, that one man's actions should be another man's duty; that one man fhould be master of another man's fentiments. How can I prevent another man's defpifing me? There is a latitude in the expreffion, and through it is conveyed to us this idea, that though it may not be in every man's power to ward off the mifplaced ridicule of knaves or fools, yet it is certainly in every man's power, by a proper attention to his fentiments, character, and conduct, to prevent each supposable occafion for deferved reproach. " Now, Bb z "Now, to point out thofe qualifications, which fecure a minifter from contempt, shall be the business of this difcourfe. "Ift. A minister should have good fenfe. "2dly. A minifter fhould have good education. 3dly. A minifter fhould be a good preacher. 4thly. A minister fhould be a good man. "The Chriftian ministry, my brethren, is, in this age of refinement, become an old fashioned and disrespected establishment ; as much regarded as men regard their fouls, that is very little; as much defpifed as men defpife religion, that is very much. The bright affemblage, however, of the four qualifications mentioned above, will render a minifter, refpectable in spite of the world; but the abfence of any of them will render him contemptible in fpite of himself. "We begin with the first qualification, which is good fenfe, Good fenfe is the foundation of future knowledge, and the prefage of future refpect. The want of it is a radical defect, and an infuperable bar against real esteem. Stupidity blocks up the ave nues to fcience, and levity evacuates inftruction as fast as it imbibes it. Good fenfe is a qualification ornamental to a man, but a qualification effential to a minifter, becaufe his duty is the moft momentous, and his office the moft honourable. Alas! thefe By good fenfe I do not mean a bright genius, a pregnant fancy, a tenacious memory, or a sparkling wit. fhewy and fuperficial qualities rather attract admiration from the ignorant than refpect from the wife. But by good fenfe I understand a comprehenfivenefs of thought, a folidity of judgment, and a clear conception of things, which is generally what we mean by the term prudence, or common fenfe. This is a fenfe not to be acquired by habit, nor picked up at universities, but coeval with the foul, and impreffed on its original form. "Men, therefore, in the early period of life, fhould confult their talent, and, if they find it defective, they should stop at once. But if they have not fenfe enough to difcover their want. of fenfe, their friends fhould be fo civil and obliging to them as to direct their eyes, not to Jerufalem, but fomewhere elfe; because a minifter, deftitute of common sense, if there is such a character in life, though adorned with all the embellishments of literature, would be confidered as a pedant; though clothed with the garments of a venerable character, would be the object of derifion and contempt. "Were a man, of this complexion, acquainted with all the languages of the globe, from the original Hebrew to the modern English; were he inftructed in all the fyftems of philosophy, from Pythagoras to Locke; were he verfed in all the fchemes of divinity, from the first religion of Adam to the prefent modifica tions of Chriftian prefbytery; were he skilled in all the political conftitutions of government, from the foundation of the Affyrian empire by Nimrod, down to the reign of king George the third; and and yet withal were a child in common fenfe; the fum of his character would be, that he is a learned fool. "Such a man must be despised. A mortal may as well expect an exemption from death, as a man of this ftamp hope for an exemption from contempt. As his imprudence has thrust him into an office, for which nature had difqualified him, fo his imprudence would push him on to a thousand actions offenfive to men of a just way of thinking. His wild and ungoverned fancy will ever be an overmatch for his feeble judgment, and too much learning would make him mad. So effential an ingredient in the minifterial character is good fenfe, that a man may as well expect fruit from a barren tree, as refpect from a weak judgment. "A fecond prefervative against contempt in a minifter, is at good education. Natural good fenfe is, indeed, the folid bafis of refpect; but learning must be joined to it in a man of a learned profeffion. The powers of the mind never exert their proper energy, fill once they are matured by ftudy. It is the culture of the earth which enriches the foil; it is the culture of the faculties which enriches the foul.* Bright improvements in a bright understanding, are like letters of gold on a ftatue of marble. They exhibit an uncommon fplendor, and ftrike the fpectator with amazement. Literary accomplishments give a luftre to character; a luftre, without which a minifterial character must be full of darkness. "It is true, when Christianity was first published to the world, the miraculous effufions of fupernatural light fuperfeded the neceffity of human learning; and men were better preachers then without ftudy, than the best of us are now, even with it. "But as that bleffed and memorable æra is long fince elapfed, and men attain knowledge by induftry, and not by infpiration, human learning is effentially requifite, fuccefsfully to illuftrate divine truths. He that is a minifter fhould not be a novice;' he that is a guide fhould not be blind. "And, indeed, there is not a church upon earth, which has more preffing neceffity for learning, than the church of Scotland. The minifters of the church of Rome have little ufe for learning, because they have only to exhort their hearers to be ignorant. The minifters of the church of England have not any urgent need of learning, becaufe, by their external grandeur, they may plaufibly support an internal dullness. But we, who are minifters of a church, deftitute of riches, power, pomp, authority, these gaudy outworks of refpect, fhould pay the strictest attention to the cukure of the mind; for when once ignorance shakes hands with *Like the rough diamond, as it leaves the minè, Till artful polishing has made it fine; THE GENTLE SHEPHERD poverty, poverty, that moment commences the period of our final diffolution. "In every age of the world, the regard fhewn to literary merit has been confiderable, and the rewards conferred upon it have been confpicuous. Even in thefe days, in which we live, amidst numberless faults, we have at leaft this good quality, that fuperior merit is ever honoured with fuperior refpect. Whilft our learning flourishes, we bear some resemblance to the liveliness and verdure of the fpring; when it decays, our bloom withers, and we refemble the fterility and nakednefs of winter. "It is not enough, then, for a minifter to have treafures of knowledge in his clofet; he should have them in his head. When emergent difficulties demand folution, he should recur to himself, not to his books; for a minister fhould be a living library, not a living index. "A man, therefore, who, ftarved in the rudiments of erudi tion, and furnished with none but crude and beggarly elements, affumes the character of a public inftructor, must be the object of deferved contempt; because he is deftitute of the very effentials of fuch a character, meddles with things that are too high for him, and, to adopt the expreffion of Dr. South, that learned and witty divine, ftrikes his head against a pulpit, when he would make a much better figure at the tail of a plough.' "But when I fpeak of a good education, I do not mean that men fhould cram their heads with a promifcuous jumble of all the fciences. This would defeat the very defign of education. He who has too much learning, is, for the most part, as ufelefs to the world, as he who has too little, and often miffes the heart by fhooting over the head. He who would know every thing, will in effect know nothing; at least, nothing to advantage. Great variety of books, like great variety of meats, ferve only, first to pamper the appetite, and then to confound it. A few ftandard books, read with attention and digested with prudence, form the mind upon a regular fyftem, and form the man a regular scholar. "The fciences, most intimately connected with the office of a. clergyman, feem to be thefe, theology, moral philofophy, hiftory, rhetoric." Voracious learning, often overfed, YOUNG, A Sermon |